The Death of the English Language

Those of you with whom I am friends on Facebook already know how outraged I am about this article in Salon: “According to the dictionary, ‘literally’ now also means ‘figuratively.'” But I’m in enough of a tizzy that a Facebook rant...

Vigilante Copy Editors

I have had fantasies in which I run amok with a red Sharpie, fixing the world’s typos. I even had a character in a story do just that. Hats off to the copy editor who has taken it upon himself to wield that red (or black, as the case may be) pen.

For the Person That This Concerns

The Atlantic is sounding the death knell for whom (and has it really been so long since I’ve picked up the print version of the magazine that I wanted to type The Atlantic Monthly? It didn’t seem quite right so I checked, and, yep!, it hasn’t used...

I Give a (Hoot) About the Oxford Comma

An issue that is near and dear to my heart. I care oh-so-much about the Oxford (aka serial) comma. I am 100%, absolutely, without a doubt in favor of the comma. (The blog post title is a cleaned-up reference to the Vampire Weekend song “Oxford Comma,”...